


images

by 43degrees



Category: Methyl Ethel (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-11-02 00:42:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20563346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/43degrees/pseuds/43degrees
Summary: An endless series of 100 word drabbles for 1 word prompts.





	1. store

**Author's Note:**

> (chapter titles as the prompts)

He remembers what it was like before he knew he wanted Thom, when he liked Thom and wanted to be around him and hear his stories and feel the warmth of his body when he grew near. And before he can be with Thom freely he remembers what it’s like when Thom touches him and puts his arms around him and kisses him even though they can’t be in love, they can’t be together. He stores these memories of Thom in his heart because he knows his eyes give him away. His sight lingers where his hands can’t yet go. 


	2. history

It runs inside them, between them, around and under and through and back again, a history that grounds them and roots them in places where water can’t be reached, where they can’t survive. Jake looks at Thom and sees the boy he let go because he was unsure and slow and dating someone else. And that someone else’s best friend became Thom’s girlfriend and what if he’d been sure? What if he’d been fast and knew not to date someone he didn’t love and dated someone he  _ was  _ in love with? What if that worked? Where would they be now?


	3. dawn

He keeps driving. The black night turns into a white day. He drives slow through the low fog with his windows rolled down. Clouds rush over his pink knuckles and he has to stop because he can’t see what’s in front of him. In the night, when he was warmed by his dreams and the light of the stars, he missed her. He wanted her. In the dawn, the white disintegrates into a full spectrum of colours, breaking apart the binary divisions of black and white, of want and comfort, and he does not need her anymore.

He drives on. 


	4. red

Thom holds Jake in his arms and pats the sweat dampened hair that falls over Jake’s forehead. He makes a part, presses his lips there, leaves an outline of dark red. Jake feels tense at the touch but his body remains frigid only momentarily, folding under the weight of a need to be touched, to be held, to be kissed, that’s been strangling him since he knew he couldn’t have Thom. He sighs, and sags into the shape of Thom, melts like hot plastic because he’s always felt that his body was made to be used, not to be loved. 


	5. concert

Thom grabs hold of Jake’s ring and the rubber squeaks as Thom uses his hold to pull himself onto the edge of Jake’s ring. 

Jake laughs, “You’re going to capsize us both!”

“Stop me then,” Thom challenges. 

Jake lifts his chin, lip caught between his teeth. He drives his arm just underneath the surface of the rushing river water and splashed water on Thom’s back. 

Thom lurches into Jake’s lap, the weight of two men demolishing Jake’s floatie. Jake clings to Thom. 

“Save me.”

Above them the cockatoos erupt in a concert of squawks, drowning out the sound of loving. 


	6. deep

“You’ve got foam on your mouth,” Thom tells him. 

He runs his thumb across Jake’s lips, wiping off the coffee foam and stops at the corner of his mouth. He feels Jake’s hot breath crowding out of his nose, the tremble of Jake’s slowly opening lips. It’s all he can do. His tongue touches the tip of Thom’s thumb, then takes it deep inside his mouth. Thom’s hot white knuckles press against Jake’s upper lip, block out one nostril as Jake sucks. Thom goes quiet. Jake worries he’s gone too far, but he can’t stop. Thom seems to allow it. 


	7. cellar

One, two, three four. Open up. 

Hardwood floors roof the cellar that Jake traps himself in. Dust filters out of the gaps between the floorboards under each step, gusting when she jumps, when she stomps. And gentle little puffs when he tip-toes, the pressure that doesn’t make him cough, doesn’t make him hurt, but ache. He descends the staircase and finds Jake in the dark. Pulls him in, winds him down, take a breath in their isolation before she tears the cellar door off its hinges and shows the world what he’s been hiding. 

Four, three, two, one. Shut down. 


End file.
